Pages

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Yay! A visit to Robert Timms cannot be without its signature criss cut fries.. signature at least to me, its on my order list each and every time I go there. Somehow, the crispy thick fries with a fluffy interior just melts in the mouth. My only grouse is if they could only have some flavored dip that we can order to go with it. Otherwise, it's a pretty perfect side, and a really large portion for only $9!﻿

There's a 1-for-1 deal going on for main course, pasta and steak. Very good deal and they do this during GSS annually for at least the last 3 years that I've been visiting them. Wish they include the all-day dining options on the deal; really miss their corn bread with turkey ham! We ordered the Garlic Prawn Spaghetti and Roasted Spring Chicken below. The prawn sphag was great, slight spiciness from the minced garlic and bits of chilli padi, the prawns were succulent and the asparagus generous. It's a large portion too, for $18 (or $18.90)

﻿

The roast chicken was just ok for me.. it's again served in a large portion, huge half of a bird, with lots of fries and a side salad, for $22 or $23.. Nothing very special to shout about.

The highlight of the day must be the latte arts, where even my non-camera toting companions wanted to take pictures of them. We gleefully asked for a dog pic and they really managed it for us! Great Service! I'm going again on Sunday =)

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

2 very ripe bananas. Half an avocado and a opened tub of plain yogurt. Handful of blueberries. An easy way to use them all up is to dump them all into a simple mix and bake up a loaf. Made with half whole wheat flour, the recipe is per usual, kind of dense. Combine that with very ripe banana, its also slightly mushy. Avocado and olive oil act as the fat here, and honey replaced sugar. The output was a short thick loaf, not the yummiest of bakes but fragrant and good enough that we finished 4 slices in 1 seating. Plus it's a healthy breakfast alternative!

Recipe:
Mash avocado, banana together with olive oil and yogurt
Add egg, vanilla and honey and combine well
Add flours, baking powder and salt, stir to combine until it just comes together
Add blueberries
Pour into loaf pan and bake at 170c for 55 minutes

Monday, June 17, 2013

Tangzhong recipe:25g bread flour125ml waterMix all ingredients in a metal pot and stir until there are no lumps. Cook over med heat until mixture becomes very thick, and lines start to appear when mixture is stirred. (Alternatively, test the temperature, you will get Tangzhong at 65C). Remove from heat and cool to room temperature before using.

2. Place flour, sugar and salt into the wet mixture and stir the dry ingredients lightly. Add the yeast, ensure that it does not come into contact with the salt. 3. Choose dough program 4. Machine will start to knead the mixture. When gluten starts to form, around 5 minutes onwards, add the yoghurt.

5. At the end of program, turn dough onto a floured surface. Flatten gently and divide into 2 portions. Form into balls and let it relax for 15 minutes.

6. Roll each ball into a thin rectangle. Lay the cheese horizontally across the dough and top with spinach all over the dough.

7. Roll the long side up and seal tightly, placing the roll on the sealed side down.

8. Cut into slices and place opened side up on a lined baking tray, dusted with flour.

10. Let rise for 30 minutes, until doubled in size.

11. Bake for 17 minutes at 160C, until top is golden brown.

Yummy fluffy bread. It was tear-away soft and paired very well with the spinach and cheese filling.

Also made plain round buns that acted as burger buns. Tall and pointy, it bounces right back to shape after each bite. Will be trying out other flavors to make more types of burger buns!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Desserts are meant to be sweet endings to a well-rounded meal. Yet, friends who know me well or colleagues whom shared many seminar meeting lunches with me know that I sometimes start with dessert or almost always go for the sweets midway. A dessert fiend just cannot wait but sink its teeth into an oozy gooey creamy mess or a sweet multi-textured layered concoction.

Above is a good example of a well-executed textured oozy dessert, from Artichoke Cafe and Bar. It was a cottony soft date cake swimming in a sweet yet light caramel cream, topped with delightful bites of bouncy coffee jelly and sprinkled generously with crushed nuts. If this description don't send you running right to the cafe, I don't know what will.. it's basically dessert haven for me! I lapped it up totally.

Artichoke is a cafe with a differentiation. Its food has a middle-eastern influence and the guys at Artichoke certainly do not scrimp on quality nor quantity! Portions are huge and the dishes are hearty, brunch items are generally served with large slices of well-toasted Za'atar bread which was explained as Turkish bread when asked. I like that the menu is focused; this usually means the chefs turn out consistent well-tested favourites. They also have a different menu for day versus night, and tweak their menu offerings frequently which is a smart idea. I would love to go back to try their dinner items. Only wish I had was if they could only have a couple of white meat items as their dishes are pork/lamb/crab/veg.

Nonetheless, I love my brunch dish, the organic mushrooms with haloumi cheese with a large za'atar bread and huge portion of scrambled eggs. The mushrooms were marinated sweetly, the eggs were fluffy, the bread was crusty and chewy, and the cheese was really interesting. It's my first time having this cheese; hidden beneath the leaves, it was a slab of light yellow firm cheese, it's like a portobello version of mushroom, almost meaty in texture, very interesting but slightly too salty for my taste bud; good for sharing around the table.

My partners in food crime had the top sellers; the Bacon & Sweet Potato hash and the Lamb Shakshouka.

The bacon are not what you would usually expect. If you have read other reviewers' post, you probably have already seen that they serve their bacon steak-style.. in a large long thick slab. This dish came with many pieces of bacon cut into chunks, tenderly cooked, and without the layers of fat that usually comes with it. Thumbs up, even from a non-porky person like me. The star of this dish for me is the sweet potato, toasted on the outside, soft and sweet inside, I think there is a maple sauce coating or that could be from the meat that flavored the hash as well. If it's grilled chicken, I would definitely order this for myself.

The lamb was minced into the sauce, and its served with eggs baked in it, topped with toasted crushed pistachio. Wow, love the sauce. I soaked up quite a fair bit of the lovely tomato stew with my za'atar! According to my lamb-eating friends the lamb did not have the strong lamb taste that I steer away from and it's well-liked amongst the table. It's a large serving, good to share as well.

Despite the crowd, the service was good and prompt. They even called me a few days ahead to ask if I needed a baby chair since I mentioned that we have a child amongst us when I made the reservation 2 weeks ago. Impressed! Definitely a place I would repeat.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Its the Tangzhong recipe again! I'm sure you are just as bored of my tangzhong posts as I am. It proves how easy and versatile the recipe is though as one basic TZ recipe can yield many types of bread. I promise I will move on to other methods of bread baking, I need to.. maybe after I finish that never-ending tub of whipped cream sitting in the fridge waiting for another loaf of TZ Hokkaido loaf.. or maybe after the large bag of creamer is depleted or maybe.. after the hub get tired of this..

Anyway, I revisited my TZ cinnamon roll as the previous one still turned out a little too blackened on top. I wanted a soft light tan, not a sunburnt charred look. The bananas were still not as ripe as I would like so off they went into the oven at 200C for 10 minutes. Roasted bananas release a sweet fragrance and the flesh is also sticky soft, roast it for a shorter time if you prefer them somewhat harder.

Tangzhong recipe:
25g bread flour
125ml water
Mix all ingredients in a metal pot and stir until there are no lumps. Cook over med heat until mixture becomes very thick, and lines start to appear when mixture is stirred. (Alternatively, test the temperature, you will get Tangzhong at 65C). Remove from heat and cool to room temperature before using.

2. Place flour, sugar and salt into the wet mixture and stir the dry ingredients lightly. Add the yeast, ensure that it does not come into contact with the salt.
3. Choose dough program
4. Machine will start to knead the mixture. When gluten starts to form, around 5 minutes onwards, add the butter.

5. At the end of program, turn dough onto a floured surface. Flatten gently and divide into 2 portions. Form into balls and let it relax for 15 minutes.

6. Roll each ball into a thin rectangle. Mix the cinnamon powder and sugar together, sprinkle generously across the dough.

7. Place sliced banana across the dough

8. Roll the long side up and seal tightly, placing the roll on the sealed side down.

9. Cut into slices and place opened side up on muffin cups in a

baking tray.

10. Let rise for 30 minutes, until doubled in size.

11. Bake for 20 minutes at 160C, until top is golden brown.

Serve warm and with a little butterscotch or chocolate sauce. I chose the chocolate sauce!

Saturday, June 8, 2013

I've kind of been on a coffee hunt recently, not a very extensive one but before I go on ahead and my forgetful self kicks in, thought I should list my thoughts and preferences. This is a reminder to myself on where to repeat, where to skip and where is a "only if you are in the area". I'm no coffee expert and don't know my arabica beans from robusta beans. All following thoughts are based on my own preferences and it's always either a black or cappuccino with skimmed milk.

Below also include any other joints I've visited before and which still lingered in my mind.

To Repeat

Habitat - which I've already repeated, it's that good! Australian Coffee; aroma of the coffee shines through my skimmed milk foam. Despite being skimmed or perhaps low fat since most service staff never told me if it's skimmed or low fat, the creaminess of the milk made the drink felt an indulgence rather than some where I felt the coffee is utilitarian (for the need of caffeine).

Chye Seng Huat - a joint I visited some months ago but their black stuck in my mind. I remembered it as black and bold, not acidic and very smooth.

PatisserieG - The first question I asked them was "You guys served Liberty Coffee right?" Elusive coffee that it is, with the brand owner only opening once a week, I was delighted to find that it's served at a few famous cafes around (The latest I heard is that they are served at Grub, Bishan Park. Yay, very near my hometown). Grabbed the chance to have it at G. Indeed yummy as word-of-mouth goes, the coffee aroma was strong and when paired with Meiji milk, it was delightful. Yum!

Jones the Grocer - After a very ordinary brunch at CA dempsey, me and hubs were glad we made the walk to Jones instead for coffee. The bright and white interior, high ceiling and huge island serving counter, stacked with plentiful produce and lovely chocolate was busy yet not squeezy. Instead, it made walking along inside the cafe a pleasant experience as surprising knick knacks are found all over. We had my usual cap and an iced mudslide mocha topped with ice cream. Much as I like their cappuccino, I had to stop myself from also finishing my hub's mudslide. It was thick dark chocolate, strong espresso, full fat milk and creamy smooth ice cream all at once. Don't wait anymore.

Loysel's Toy - I seldom order black as my bad experiences of long blacks with SBucks and CBean deter me from random orders without prior reviews. However, Loysel's Toy's reputation of Papa Palheta coffee and with their barista winning the Singapore National Barista award, I was not afraid to go for coffee in its full glory, black without any trimmings of milk nor sugar. It did not disappoint; not acidic at all, it was easy to drink and the coffee was full-bodied and thick (like a Kopi-o Gao version of kopi which is not really a comparison but you know what I mean)

Toby's Estate - Another joint I visited some time back, I remembered rating it slightly lower than Chye Seng Huat. Still I recalled it was a pleasant cup and one that I would not mind re-visiting.

To Skip

I find the coffee at these joints weak and I could barely taste the coffee. However, there are definitely other redeeming factors for some, so visit for the food not the coffee.

Garden Slug - Garden Slug's food is great and at very affordable prices. Their bread was a crispy, memorable multi-grain and their large slices of smoked salmon were very fulfilling.

Wimbly Lu - Their sticky date pudding was yummilicious! Root beer cake was unique with a strong hint of root beer in its cake and sauce. The blackout cake was somewhat dry though. Fries are shoe-string, nothing to shout about.

Cafe Melba - the fries are not bad but the burger I had was disappointing for the price it command. It was a single though fat patty, with barely a lettuce and tomato. Bun used was nothing out of the blue. Not a place I would visit again.

Only if you are in the area

Artichoke - I don't recall the coffee strongly, which I guess makes it neither good not particularly bad. therefore I put it into the "only if you are there", however love the food there! I'll do a separate post on the food items. Stayed tuned!

Blue Mahoe - (it's not a cafe, just takeaway counter). I went only because I saw a FB post that said "Like the post, screenshot it and show at counter to get a coffee at $2 instead of $14" I was intrigued; a coffee that cost $14 a cup must be worth a visit. So, I trotted to Takashimaya and looked for their counter outside Cold Storage, which is near DonQ. Cool setup, with many apparatus and friendly, uniformed baristas. They patiently explained the technology of their siphon coffee to me and engaged me in a conversation of how and where I got to know the brand etc etc which I thought was a really good practice as you have to stand at the counter while waiting for the brew. I was impressed. Of the brew itself, I'm afraid I do not have the experienced palette to differentiate it from other cuppas. It struck me as black, bold, smooth, which I would love to repeat but at $14 a cup, I will hesitate. Go try it while it's still going for $2! (I think valid up to late June, search FB for their page)

House of Robert Timms- My favourite cafe for brunch dining / hearty food / indulgent fries, it is however not a place I will go just for coffee. Food is great and their sticky date is my recommendation of desserts to anyone who ask; their coffee is pretty ordinary, with no lasting impression. Brekkie and Cake is the way to go.

Smitten - This is another place I ordered a black. It was a slow-drip coffee but I thought was slightly acidic. While it is not bad and the place is quaint and quiet, I would go only if I happen to be in the area. But there are so many choices at the same area, it's going to be hard to choose them over...say Toby's Estate.

Me

From the sunny island that is Singapore. Love my country's smooth pathways, plentiful trees and clean air.
For a dose of my home-baked goodness with only fresh ingredients used, contact me at croxxy@gmail.com